Friday, July 17, 2015

Reporting From The Rock Shop

So much has been going on at the Rock Shop, that it's time to write up a report.

Yesterday was very exciting for us, because Ashley finished a project that we've spent many days on over the last three summers. At the end of last summer we'd given up on the line, but we've both felt stronger this year, so we started working on it again. The line uses a set of slippery slopey crimps to connect the V5 opening moves of "Boulder of Montana" into the start of the painfully crimpy V6 "To the Pain." This creates a long line that requires good power endurance, and strong core strength to take advantage of high a left foot smear and a heel hook on a small edge.

Here is the uncut video of the hardest first ascent that Ashley has ever done.

The Rock Shop also saw a lot of activity due to the International Climbers' Festival. Alex Johnson lead a bouldering clinic out there with Kian acting as the tour guide. And Carlo Traversi lead a clinic that I helped out with. During Carlo's clinic I witnessed what I believe is the first flash of "The Giving Tree" V10 by Carlo.

It was interesting to watch how Carlo used his core strength to try out different foot positions before making the hand moves. It looked like he had power to spare until the last difficult move. He barely caught the swing, but he did catch it!

It was exciting to see! Nice work Carlo!

During the clinic I showed Carlo three undone projects that were nearby. One of them was the tall line that Mike had put some time into.

Carlo didn't have time to work on the projects that day, but he came back the next morning and sent the line above! He's rated it V11, and is still deciding what to call it.

After the clinic officially ended, quite a few people stayed to get a tour of Nexus and the problems around it. The conditions were alright, but Nexus is a fingery problem to try at the end of a session. Progress was made, but it didn't see any repeats while I was there.

Nexus V6

Outside of the festival, and the most difficult first ascents, there is even more activity to report. Chris did a lot of landing work below the Lander Wall and it's now one of the more popular boulders at the Rock Shop. El Moreno Right is a great warm up at V2 if you hit the lip and exit right.

I tried the original heel above your head left exit once but was just too scared.

Working on "Philanderer" is reasonable now that Chris has built a deck of sticks and string below it. But no one actually falls on the deck, because it's still scary and the top out holds of "Philanderer" are actually pretty good.

Steve working out the top out over the deck.

Quite a few other first ascents have been done too. Stephen did a new line called "Money Train" near the "Grave Wave." On the way there you can climb Charlie's first first ascent called "Against All Odds" V4. And Jesse recently put up a new compression line out the overhang on the Swan Boulder.
Kian and I spent time cleaning all the holds and cracks on the warm up boulder next to the UFO. Then we climbed every variation we could think of.

Kian's put up a bunch of moderate lines recently, and is working on some harder ones. One of our favorites so far is "Havana Daydream" V1/2.

Some of his other lines include "High Stakes," "In Tents," and "Moon Rocks" which we haven't gotten a chance to climb yet. In one of Kian's new sectors Ashley added a surprisingly fun little roof problem called "Bikini Bottom" V3.

In other news "Lord of the Flies" has changed significantly for climbers shorter than 5'6", but it still goes with new beta at about V6.

Also a new variation climbs diagonally from the start of "Piggy" to end of "Lord of the Flies." Devlin told me about the line, but I'm not sure who climbed it first or if it's been named.

I almost forgot to mention a new V3 called "Jet Stream" that Ashley added just west of "Pain and Perfection.

Our daughters have also been enjoying the climbing there.

And we've been getting out there with many friends.

Ben working on "To the Pain."

We've been having so much fun at the Rock Shop that it makes me wonder sometimes, why I bother climbing anywhere else during the Summer! Well, we'll save those other places for the next post.